Listeria decontamination

Processed foods, like cold meats and viennas, were a must on most lunch menus but, with the recent outbreak of listeriosis, snacking on ready-to-eat meats on sandwiches and buns are a no-go. CHARLENE SOMDUTH looks at alternate lunch box ideas.

YOU may have removed the Enterprise and Rainbow Chicken products from your fridge and freezer but have you disinfected them?

Food safety experts have warned that despite the affected items being removed, fridges and freezers need to be thoroughly cleaned to ensure all traces of bacteria are removed.

Dr Lucia Anelich, of Food Safety Solutions, said listeriosis food poisoning, caused by eating foods contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, entered the home mainly via contaminated food. “It grows in moist food very well. It also grows at below 4°C, down to around 0°C. This is a quite unique trait. Most bacteria cannot grow in the refrigerator. This is why it is problematic as it can grow to high numbers in a relatively short space of time in one’s fridge,” cautioned Anelich.

One of the ways to kill the bacteria, she advised, was with diluted bleach.

“It works very well on surfaces and all fridge racks and inside parts of the fridge can be washed with a detergent and then disinfected with diluted bleach.”

She said if consumers did not return the products to the supermarket, they should not throw the items away but burn them.

“While I would not like people to start making fires in their backyards, the best option would be to return them to the retailers.”

The Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi has continually advised the public to avoid all processed meat products that are sold as ready-toeat and beware of cross-contamination.

“While we know that polony is definitely implicated, there is a risk of cross-contamination of other ready-toeat processed meat products, either at production, distribution or retail.

“This is because Listeria on the exterior casing (packaging) of polony can be transferred to other products it comes into contact with, like viennas, Russians, frankfurters, other sausages and other cold meat products that are typically not cooked before eating.”

Motsoaledi said those most affected were pregnant women, infants, especially newborns up to 28 days old, the elderly and anyone with a weak immune system.

“The public must continue to follow the safety rules. Wash your hands before handling food, when coming back from the bathroom, making sure food is well-cooked, isolating raw food from cooked food, making sure that food is at an appropriate temperature and washing non-cooked food with clean running water, as well as using only pasteurised or boiled milk products.”

At the beginning of the month, the total laboratory confirmed cases of listeriosis rose to 967 cases of which 183 patients had died.

This was according to a report by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

It stated that data collection was continuing and the numbers were changing – with eight more cases reported in the past week.

“Health care workers are urged to continue with vigilance for new cases as persons who have consumed implicated processed meat products over the past few weeks may continue to present with listeriosis,” stated the report.

A week ago, Motsoaledi confirmed the source of the outbreak to be the Enterprise food production facility in Polokwane.

This facility and one in Germiston were subsequently shut down, while RCL Foods’ Wolwehoek processing plant had suspended production of its Rainbow polony brand.

Since the outbreak, the products have been recalled from stores and consumers were urged to return the items.

The CEO of Tiger Brands, of which Enterprise is a division, Lawrence MacDougall, said they were directing all their efforts, energy and time to determine how the outbreak occurred.

“The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority… Together with our staff, business partners and relevant authorities, we are working to mitigate any further risks to consumers.”

He added: “We will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this, to ensure it does not happen again.”

MacDougall said they had appointed a team of local and international scientific experts, and their two factories would remain closed while they conducted a deep-cleaning process.